CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 39 



In those days the use of firearms was an accomplish- 

 ment acquired early by boys with access to the woods 

 and fields. There is no record of the date at which he 

 first was permitted to use a gun, but in the earliest por- 

 tion of his journal in 1838, he records lists of birds shot 

 on his daily walks, and from their number it is evident 

 that he was even then proficient and accurate in his use of 

 the shotgun. In these excursions he was usually accom- 

 panied by his brother, William, or his cousin, William 

 Penrose, and occasionally by one or more of his uncles. 



In 1836, at the age of thirteen, he entered Dickinson 

 College, of which his father, Samuel Baird, had been a 

 member of the Academic Senate, where his brother 

 William was then in the senior class, and his brother 

 Samuel a sophomore. 



The origin and establishment of this institution of 

 learning have already been referred to. Owing doubtless 

 to the youthfulness of many of their students, oversight 

 and control of them was much more strict and paternal 

 than would be considered endurable by most college 

 students to-day. The institution possessed no dormi- 

 tories; the students boarded in approved houses when 

 they did not live at home in the town; prayers were at 

 six A.M., necessitating early rising, as students were 

 required to be present; each student, not a resident of 

 Carlisle, was required to select a patron from among the 

 members of the Faculty who supervised his deportment, 

 received and disbursed all his funds, rendering monthly 

 statements of expenditures to the parents; and without 

 his permission no bills might be contracted, "provided, 

 that no bills shall be paid for horse or carriage hire, 

 confectionery, fruit, eatables of any kind, or other articles 

 unnecessary for a student." However, a moderate sum of 



